Algae Fuels Hopes for Life Without Big Oil!

Let’s cover off what you what you might already know…. Algae are a rather simple life-form that come in well over 65,000 different varieties (with possibly 100’s of thousands more to be identified still!), and they remain on the bleeding edge of Renewable Energy research, and represent a Holy Grail for many of the Disciples of BioFuels since they can also convert light and CO2 into oils and sugars like nothing else on Earth! The trouble with this ‘soon to bloom’ solution, is that most of the large PetroChemical Giants are also already well up to speed in their efforts to squeeze oil out of algae, and they are even starting to be awarded Patents on both processes, and even certain breeds (or mutations) of Algae in order to keep someone else from getting a competetive edge in this newly developing industry.

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Of course, this is a familiar story about how progress gets held back by powerful interests that seek to monopolize new ideas, and effectively kill growth prospects for everyone else…But in the case of algae, there might actually be enough biodiversity to go around for everyone, and we might all soon be singing the praises of this smelly, slimy deterant for swimmers, as we thumb our noses at the oil giants who are still trying to get the most from their well-heads.

That is of course, if there’s enough desire for cooperation between Bankers, Researchers, and the independent Industrialists who can move these ideas forward , rather than holding all their cards too close to their chest… Surely we don’t need another reason to wonder what companies like BP, Shell, and Exxon-Mobile have hidden in their sleeves, when it comes to assimilating good energy ideas, and then sitting on them until the oil runs dry!

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DIY BioDiesel ?

Now that clean-diesel technology, and low-sulfur fuel formulations are widely available, Diesel power seems to be enjoying a surge in popular interest in NorthAmerica. One of the main attractions is the versatility that this engine design has for using alternative bio-fuel sources, which are reviving a century old vision of BioFuels that can lead us away from our reliance on fossil fuels…But there’s only one biofuel that won’t displace food crops, and offers other positive ecological side effects.

Bio-Diesel might certainly not be the final solution, but at least its a good low-carbon bet to hedge on while awaiting the developments that will enable electric cars to overcome their expensive, heavy, and toxic battery technologies, and of course find new energy sources to satisfy their raw and enormous thirst for more coal-fired electricity. While we await these cleaner primary sources of electricity to come online, the resulting interest in BioFuel continues to spawn a huge grass-roots interest in Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Diesel. The question arises though, is the hype and promise of BioDiesel turning into a bigger “product” than the actual end-product itself!?!

During this interim phase between the “World as we know it, “, and the “World we wish it to be”, we’re starting to hear alot more about the DIY methods of making BioFuels which all promise to provide an organically sourced energy for transportation that ‘consumes’ as much greenhouse gas in it’s growth phase as it releases during combustion. It’s also a The trouble is that alot of these sales programs and consumer messages have the production value of late night informercials or Get-Rich-Quick schemes – where the purported “know-how” is the product being sold, rather than the actual end result. Even the more well packaged and produced offerings seem heavy on the sauce, and pretty light on actual substance.

So how do we tell the SnakeOil Salesmen from the ones who actually have a solid plan that improves things beyond their own bottom line? Take for example this promo piece (above) that so easily glosses over the details, but which we’re all so much more prone to accepting since it doesn’t end with a logo of an Oil Giant…

A Diesel Powered Future?

	Diesel Power was a revolution that still inspires new innovations even today. Bridging the gap for Industry and Transportation as they seek out a sustainable Future. Check the Green History of Diesel!

Upon operating his first successful engine design back in 1897  Rudolph Diesel changed the world in ways that most people still don’t fully appreciate today. Especially now, as we begin the long process of moving out of the petroleum-powered era, we should pause to take lessons from visionaries like Tesla and Diesel, and consider how they harnessed natural forces and physical phenomena to revolutionize existing technologies, and enabled enormous leaps into the Future by allowing others to build upon the solid foundations that they laid. The venerable diesel engine was an innovation of the internal combustion engine that continues to be improved upon even today, with the new methods and materials that are offered by modern science.

Many of us associate diesel power with loud smelly trucks and buses, so it might come as a great surprise that Diesel technology is actually still being improved upon after all this time. In fact, in just the past few years we’re seeing a level of improvement to efficiency and emissions that are actually positioning diesel as a sustainable interim solution for our transportation needs…While other options continue to be researched for that quantum leap in technology that will slingshot both Industry and Society towards the next century. So If you’re ready to see how diesel power still holds a few tricks up it’s sleeve, then let’s start exploring, by looking at railway locomotives as our prime motivator!

BTW: If you’re curious about Rudolf Diesel’s sense of environmental and social responsibility, as it was well over a century ago…Just pop-open another window by clicking HERE for further insights.

Diesel’s Vision

	At one time, Diesel power was poised as an alternative to big Coal and Oil… Today it could once again bridge the sustainability gap, offering Industry and Transportation the time to find its renewable power for the Future. Learn More Here

At the World’s Fair of 1900 in Paris France, Rudolph Diesel demonstrated the virtues of his new pressure-ignited “rational heat motor”  which came to bear his name to the world then, and has done so to the present day. We’ve come to also know Rudolf Diesel as an eminent mechanical and thermal engineer, a multi-lingual and knowledgeable patron of the Arts, and not least of all a highly progressive Social Theorist. Although his legacy is inestimable, his rise to fame was as quick as it was brief…and leaves us with some unanswered questions about how Diesel’s vision may have offered us a different world than the one ruled by Oil and Big Banks.

Hemp Diesel

A century ago, Diesel Power and Hemp Products could have combined to side-track (eliminate?) our dependencies on Oil and Forestry… …Things could still come full circle! CLICK HERE to learn how Diesel can clean up it’s act, and kick the big-oil habit!

In 1893, German inventor Rudolf Diesel published a paper entitled “The Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Engine” which described a motor in which air is compressed by a piston to a very high pressure, causing a temperature spike where injected fuel is auto-ignited and efficiently burned in the expanding compression during the down-stroke. This basic concept results in a simple, safe, cool, highly efficient engine that could run on locally produced vegetable oils – and therefore level the playing field for those who otherwise couldn’t compete with the large steam-powered Industries and Shippers of the day.

Unfortunately, in the early 20th century big-banks and financiers were already exerting their powerful will, in support of their oil and forestry interests, and thus assuring the dominance of emerging petro-chemical industries. So instead of seeing how Diesel’s vision would have played out, we’ve had to wait until the combined and destructive effects of a Financial, Energy, and Environmental crisis, here the 21st century, could obviate the ideals and benefits that Rudolf Diesel had envisioned for Society, well over a century ago; when he built his first engines to be run on the same types of bio-fuels that we now have available today, and which could have cut coal and oil out of the picture from the very start.